Creator of spec for melting RTX 4090 cables urges Nvidia, others to 'ensure user safety'
- Reference: 1669966208
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2022/12/02/pcisig_melting_cables_nvidia/
- Source link:
The consortium, [1]PCI-SIG , said it issued the recent statement to member companies partly in response to a [2]lawsuit filed against Nvidia last month by a user whose RTX 4090 connector melted shortly after plugging the graphics card into his computer. The legal complaint claims the meltdown poses a "serious electrical and fire hazard" and seeks damages from Nvidia for alleged fraud, among other charges.
PCI-SIG said its message was also in response to a report from "one manufacturer" about potential issues with the 12VHPWR connector.
[3]
"PCI-SIG wishes to impress upon all Members that manufacture, market or sell PCI-SIG technologies (including 12VHPWR connections) the need to take all appropriate and prudent measures to ensure end user safety, including testing for the reported problem cases involving consumers as alleged in the above-referenced lawsuit," the organization said.
[4]
[5]
The statement added that PCI-SIG is responsible for providing "necessary technical information for interoperability" related to its specifications, leaving crucial steps of their implementation to member companies.
"When implementing a PCI-SIG specification, Members are responsible for the design, manufacturing, and testing, including safety testing, of their products," PCI-SIG argued. Unusually, PCI-SIG forwarded the message to The Register unprompted.
[6]Nvidia faces lawsuit for melting RTX 4090 cables as AMD has a laugh
[7]Nvidia RTX 4090: So hot they're melting power cables
[8]Nvidia's datacenter growth can't save it from gaming GPU woes
[9]Nvidia patches 29 GPU driver bugs that could lead to code execution, device takeover
The consortium's statement comes after Nvidia [10]said in mid-November that it believes RTX 4090 cables are melting because users are not fully plugging them in. The GPU maker suggests users plug the connector into the graphics card before slotting it into the motherboard to avoid such issues.
At the time, the GeForce designer admitted it was aware of 50 cases globally of RTX 4090 cables melting, and added it was "investigating additional ways to ensure the connector is secure." The company has vowed to expedite authorized returns of RTX 4090 cards made by Nvidia and partners, regardless of the cable used.
[11]
Nvidia spoke up after [12]several complaints , including the lawsuit, piled up about melting or burning RTX 4090 cables following the [13]October launch of its $1,599 graphics card.
Due to the card's extravagant energy requirements – 450 watts for regular power consumption and 600 watts for overclocking – Nvidia introduced the 12VHPWR power connector to maintain sufficient juice. ®
Get our [14]Tech Resources
[1] https://pcisig.com/
[2] https://www.theregister.com/2022/11/18/nvidia_flawsuit_4090/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=auto&utm_content=article
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/systems&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2Y4na1LumdSG-fk-fcMN9vwAAAEs&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/systems&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Y4na1LumdSG-fk-fcMN9vwAAAEs&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/systems&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33Y4na1LumdSG-fk-fcMN9vwAAAEs&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2022/11/18/nvidia_flawsuit_4090/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2022/10/25/nvidia_rtx_4090_so_hot/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2022/11/17/nvidia_quarterly_results/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2022/12/01/nvidia_gpu_driver_bugs/
[10] https://nvidia.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/5413
[11] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/systems&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Y4na1LumdSG-fk-fcMN9vwAAAEs&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2022/10/25/nvidia_rtx_4090_so_hot/
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2022/09/20/nvidia_rtx_40_series/
[14] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: Sure blame users ..
Yeah but, it's also work , plus admission of blame .
When you have major companies paying hundreds of millions in settlement fines and going before the press proudly stating "we admit no wrongdoing", you can hardly expect a standards body to admit that it fouled up when it's the others making the cables following the standards who can be blamed.
Re: Sure blame users ..
Not only are the sense pins too long (so the card thinks the connectors is fully inserted when it isn't), the force required to insert it is too high AND the latching mechanism doesn't click when it latches. MicroFit is just a bad connector for consumers.
A 10 pin MiniFit connector would support a higher wattage and be easier for consumers to install.
Some backstory here
http://jongerow.com/12VHPWR/
TLDR - not all cables are suitable for 600W
Interesting read. Thanks for the link.
Misleading headline tries to imply responsibility is left in the hands of the end user, not the manufacturer.
Is the register turning itself over to clickbait now? Sooner than I expected. Shouldn't have driven away all your readers, eh?
Interesting, I didn't get that from the headline at all:
" Creator of spec for melting RTX 4090 cables urges Nvidia , others to 'ensure user safety' "
I always thought Nvidia was the manufacturer? Sure, previous reports (listed in the article) stated that Nvidia blame end users, but from this I took it that that body who came up with the spec in the first place is telling manufacturers it's their responsibility?
Now, don't get me wrong, I'm the first to criticise the americanisation of the register (lower case all intentional), the shooing away of Dabbsy and them generally getting rid of all that made this publication unique, but in this case I think the headline is fair enough.
Something something something...
...Laws of Thermodynamics....Something something something.
Some Credit Should Be Given To Gamers Nexus
Steve over at the Gamers Nexus youtube channel needs to be given some credit I think for this.
They did quite a thorough dive into the cause of the issue, and their video on it makes for quite interesting watching... Literally the day or two after it was posted... nVidia point to it and say 'yeah, that's exactly what we found too'
Given near nVidia's silence on the subject up to that point, I was half expecting them to try and blame the user... when that's not the whole problem at all.
Crappy design decisions, allow the card to be powered without the connector properly inserted and with such a small connector, and inadequate 'clip' it was a problem waiting to happen... and shows that quality testing was also inadequate.
Sure blame users ..
instead of biaming users, saying something like " oh ain't foolproof eh ? let's redo this .. " is way more productive and confidence inspiring.